A selection of the best news reports, analysis and opinions published by ThePrint this week.
The most faceless, nameless & talent-averse government
Ever wondered who the country’s agriculture minister is… Precisely. Shekhar Gupta in his weekly column, National Interest, argues that the Narendra Modi government is the most faceless, nameless, talent-averse India has seen. And for the record, Radha Mohan Singh is the country’s agriculture minister.
One of the fastest spreading cancers that ails 2 of India’s top politicians
Two senior BJP leaders are reportedly suffering from pancreatic cancer at the same time — Goa CM Manohar Parrikar and union parliamentary affairs minister. Even the disease is diagnosed at an early stage, oncologists say the average survival time is 20 months, reports Rahiba R. Parveen.
Quietly, Modi govt ‘hides’ list of IAS, IFS, IPS officers eligible for Delhi posts
A public list of civil servants curated by the Central government — from which central ministries could pick officers from the states — was quietly made ‘restricted’ on the website of the Department of Personnel and Training at least five months ago, reports Sanya Dhingra.
As if hounding Muslims wasn’t enough, BJP is now giving same treatment to Sikhs
By unleashing the propaganda machine against the Sikhs on Kartarpur Sahib issue, BJP is playing with fire that patriotic — and smart — Indians would rather not, writes Shekhar Gupta.
This is what the Indian Air Force’s fighter squadron strength has been reduced to
Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman has claimed the total number of fighter aircraft squadrons in the IAF was down to 33 at the end of the UPA rule in 2014. IAF’s authorised strength is 42 squadrons, a figure it has never touched. The maximum number reached is 39.5 in the early 1990s, writes Sujan Dutta.
Visiting Himachal Pradesh for a ‘Malana Cream’ or ‘chitta’ high? The CM has other plans
The BJP government in Himachal Pradesh wants the hill state and hippy haven to be drug-free. Chief Minister Jairam Thakur has told ThePrint’s D.K. Singh that the state will soon seek amendments to the NDPS Act to deal with peddlers and possessors much more strictly.
Narendra Modi has an NPA problem of another kind: BJP chief ministers
Many of the BJP CMs are becoming a big liability for the party in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. But they are the ones who were gifted their chairs by the Modi-Amit Shah ‘jodi’ as rewards for loyalty, friendship or considerations other than their administrative or political acumen, writes D.K. Singh.